Combining AI, SIL and HIL testing to verify safety before deployment on site… preparing for unmanned yard tractors
Officials from Ability Systems and PLOVER pose for a commemorative photo after signing a business agreement on October 14 at the ‘2026 THE NEXT AI x SMATOF’ exhibition to establish a development and verification environment for autonomous driving systems in ports. Photo courtesy of PLOVER
A system to verify the safety of autonomous vehicles in ports before they are deployed on site is being promoted.
Mobility artificial intelligence (AI) verification company PLOVER (CEO Lim Dong-hyun) and port logistics automation company Ability Systems (CEO Shin Jae-il) announced on the 14th that they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the ‘2026 THE NEXT AI x SMATOF’ exhibition to build a development and verification environment for autonomous driving systems.
Recently, ports have been pushing to automate yard tractors that transport containers or replace them with automated guided vehicles (AGVs). As the number of driverless vehicles increases, how thoroughly safety can be verified before actual deployment in the field is emerging as a key challenge.
To this end, the two companies plan to create an integrated verification system that combines AI-based testing with software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) verification technologies. SIL is a method of testing autonomous driving software in a virtual environment within a computer, while HIL is a method of testing by connecting actual vehicle control units.
PLOVER plans to test autonomous driving software using virtual sensor data and port operation data, then select driving scenarios that require additional verification and proceed with tests using actual control units. The company also intends to analyze differences before and after software modifications to check safety prior to field deployment.
Ability Systems will establish verification conditions suited to real working environments based on its port operation experience. The company is developing a retrofit platform that adds autonomous driving devices to existing yard tractors and stated that it has technology to integrate autonomous vehicles with terminal operating systems (TOS) and fleet management systems (FMS).
Kim Cheol-han, Vice President of Ability Systems, said, “For the intelligent and unmanned operation of port logistics, it is important not only to advance autonomous driving technology but also to secure system safety from the development stage.”
Lim Dong-hyun, CEO of PLOVER, said, “We will support yard tractor automation and the transition to AGVs by linking port field data with verification technologies.”
The two companies plan to expand the scope of cooperation to include system design, functional and performance testing, demonstration projects, and response to standards and certifications.
Choi Yong-seok
AI-translated with ChatGPT. Provided as is; original Korean text prevails.
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